The Maine official responsible for having former President Donald Trump booted from her state’s Republican primary ballot has visited President Joe Biden’s White House — twice in the last year — and has previously referred to the Electoral College as a “relic of white supremacy.”
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (D-ME), according to a report published by The New York Post on Saturday, visited the White House in March and then again in June. During the first visit, she met President Biden — and when she returned several months later, she met with one of Biden’s aides.
Bellows posted a photo of herself with the president a day after the first visit, which she said included a White House event celebrating Women’s History Month.
“Birthday jaunt to DC for a Women’s History Month event at the White House yesterday and walking around today. So wonderful to see one of my earliest mentors Teresa Younger and fellow first female Secretary Elaine Marshall of North Carolina at the White House reception. Amazing to meet President Biden. Grateful for the birthday wishes today,” she captioned the photo on Instagram.
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When she returned to the White House in June, she reportedly met with Justin Vail, special aide to President Biden.
Bellows’ beef with the Electoral College was revealed in a 2021 op-ed for the Democracy Docket — an op-ed that she wrote just one year after serving as a member of the Electoral College herself in 2020.
“It’s not enough to advance voting rights in our state alone. It shouldn’t be easier to vote in Maine than Montana. Voting rights for our neighbors matter as much as our own, especially when the relic of white supremacy that is the Electoral College remains in place,” she wrote.
Bellows issued a ruling on Thursday declaring Trump ineligible to run for a second presidential term in 2024, citing the 14th Amendment and claiming that his participation in an “insurrection” on January 6, 2021, was what had disqualified him.
Bellows also rejected demands from Trump’s team, who said that she should recuse herself from decisions about whether or not he could appear on the ballot because things she had posted on social media suggested she had already predetermined that he was guilty of “insurrection.”